European Education, Journal of Material Culture, Australian Journal of Early Childhood, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood , Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, Issues in Educational Research, International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives

ORGANIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES AND MEETINGS

Symposium Convener: The cultural politics of ‘childhood’ and ‘nation’: space, mobility and a global world. 28 November 2013, Newcastle, Australia

Research keywords

Research expertise

Brief Research Interest

My research examines the way in which constitutions of ‘the child’ and childhood shift in concert with the changing problematizations about the government of population and individuals. I understand early education as a political practice and use contemporary social theory and methodologies to understand how children are positioned as political subjects and how children's political subjectivities are formed. I am interested in knowing 1) with what effects political concepts – such as citizenship, participation and community; and ideologies – socialism and neo-liberalism, are taken up or are translated in to early years policies, curriculum and everyday practices; and 2) how particular psychological knowledges – such as classroom discipline and developmentalism – regulate young children and fashion their subjectivities. My research is situated at the cross-sections of politics of education, sociology of childhood, social theory and early childhood education, and uses comparative frameworks.

Recent editorial work

The cultural politics of ‘childhood’ and ‘nation’: space, mobility and a global world - Special issue in Global Studies of Childhood journal 2014-2015, Issues 4(3) and 5(1)

Despite the abundance of ‘global citizen’ discourses in educational policy and curriculum, little attention has been paid in research so far as to how children construct their understanding about living in an increasingly interconnected world as they make their place, consume globalised ideas and things, and travel physically or virtually through the media or Internet sites. Through a collaborative project between young children, practitioners and researchers, we aim to make explicit how children form sensibilities and understandings about their ‘world’: their place and space, relations and time within it.

2. The cultural politics of ‘childhood’ and ‘nation’: space, mobility and a global world

Historically, national governments’ interest in children has always been about a nation’s future: “investments in future parenthood, economic competitiveness, and a stable democratic order” (Hendrick, 1997, p. 46). When the future is debated, childhood stands in the crosscurrent of various competing cultural and political projects, such as improving the moral fabric of society or preserving a coherent national community. The ways in which we understand spaces of childhood and nation and their intersections of national childhoods, shape how we understand our own childhood (memories of belonging to a nation), children’s worlds (as a/political agents and citizens of a nation and / or globe) and children’s lives. Despite these notions defining characteristics to our identities and civic participation, we know little about the premises upon which children’s sense of belonging to a national community is constructed and how children come to assume and inhabit national identities. Our globalising world also poses several challenges for understanding nation and childhood, since nation-centred analysis of policies, provisions, constructions and experiences of childhood no longer stand. Family, community or nation-bound notions of ‘childhood’ are also being increasingly challenged by processes of globalisation and mobility. Many children today are global travellers and in connection with people and things from different places often far from home through the media and technology. This context necessitates new imaginations, theoretical arguments and empiric

Languages

Hungarian

Russian

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

130200

Curriculum And Pedagogy

50

130100

Education Systems

50

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

Member - Australian Association for Research in Education

Member - Comparative and International Education Society, US

Member - The Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society

Member - Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth

Editorial Board.

Member - Issues in Educational Research

Member - International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives

Member - Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Member - European Education

Appointments

Assistant EditorIssues in Educational Research (Australia)

01/11/2012

Awards

Other

2013

2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student LearningThe University of Newcastle (Australia)“For teaching that engages the student as a person, inquisitive learner, innovative and critical professional and public intellectual”

Research Award.

2014

Jean Denton Memorial ScholarshipUniversity of South Australia (Australia)The purpose of the scholarship is to advance knowledge in early childhood education.

2009

Faculty of Education and Arts FellowshipThe University of Newcastle (Australia)A three months long research fellowship to finish publications and a co-edited book, and to establish international research collaborations.

Visiting researcherFaculty of Education, The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (Distinguished Visitor)

2011

Collaboration

Zsuzsa is a member of the Comparative and International Education Group at the University of Newcastle (CIEGUN) in which members explore global educational policies and alternatives for contemporary times. More about the group can be found here:

Zsuzsa is a postdoctoral researcher at the Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG) - part of the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in Research on the Relational and Territorial Politics of Bordering, Identities and Transnationalization (RELATE) (2014-2019) http://www.oulu.fi/relate/researchteam

Administrative

Administrative expertise

I am one of the convenors of the The 41st Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES). University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia - 26-28 November 2013

I have been the founder and coordinator of Students and Staff Talking About Research (SSTAR) between 2008-1013. I organised weekly research seminars for researchers and biannual conferences for postgraduate students at the School of Education.

I was instrumental in co-hosting the AARE 'Utility of Theory(s) in Educational Research' workshops on behalf of the School of Education, The University of Newcastle on13-15th May 2011.

I established and lead a Reading Group for Early Childhood professionals in the Hunter region since 2008.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

Comparative and international education

Early childhood education policy

Foundations of child development

Foundations of early childhood education

Politics of schooling

Sociology of schooling

Teaching expertise

Zsuzsa has taught courses in sociology, sociology and politics of education, early childhood education, child development and comparative and international education.

Millei Z, ''Community' and 'democratic practice' in early childhood education and care: A critique and possibility through the optic of Roberto Esposito', Global Studies of Childhood, 2 247-259 (2012) [C1]

Millei Z, Gallagher J, 'Opening spaces for dialogue and re-envisioning children's bathroom in a preschool: Practitioner research with children on a sensitive and neglected area of concern', International Journal of Early Childhood, 44 9-29 (2012) [C1]

Millei Z, 'Problematizing the concepts of 'citizenship' and 'participation' in early years discourses: Are they so empowering?', International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, 6 41-56 (2008) [C1]

Millei Z, Lee L, ''Smarten up the parents ': whose agendas are we serving? Governing parents and children through the Smart Population Foundation Initiative in Australia', Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 8 208-221 (2007) [C1]

Millei Z, 'Memory (re)produced and (re)presented: Teachers' memories of socialist kindergartens in Hungary', The 40th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES), Christchurch, NZ (2012) [E3]

Millei Z, 'Systemic early childhood education: Lessons from East and Central-European ex-socialist countries for the achievement of Millennium Development Goals', Trans-Disciplinary Conference on Early Childhood Development and Education. Programme, Cape Town, South Africa (2012) [E3]

Millei Z, Sumsion J, 'Thinking about 'community' in early childhood education and care', 19th Reconceptualising Early Childhood Education Conference 2011, Politics of Care: Sharing Knowledges, Love and Solidarity, University of East London (2011) [E3]

Grants and Funding

Summary

- Indicates that the researcher may be seeking students for this project.

Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.

2015 (1 grants)

4th International Conference on the Geographies of Children, Youth, and Families, Wyndham San Diego Bayside, USA, 12-15 January 2015$1,000Funding Body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

56th Annual Conference of Comparative an International Education Society, Caribe Hilton San Juan, Puerto Rico, 22 - 27 April 2012$1,500Funding Body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

2011 (1 grants)

55th International Conference of the 55th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, 900 Rene-Levesque Blvd, West Montreal, Quebec H3$1,500Funding Body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

CEIEC Honoring the Child, Honoring Equity conference 2010, University of Melbourne, 18 - 20 November 2010$1,000Funding Body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts

2009 (1 grants)

2009 Australian Association for Research In Education International Education Research Conference, Canberra, 29 Nov - 3 Dec 2009$797Funding Body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts